Path of the Renegade by Andy Chambers. Book review

The dark eldar, or space elves, live in the city of Commorragh. They are practically immortal, provided they get their daily fix of inflicting pain on other living beings. The city is run by Asdrubael Vect, a tyrant many millennia old.

All the other dark eldar below him are after his job, of course. Yllithian is one such, and hatches a plan to throw the big boss off his seat and take it for himself.

As you would expect from such a story, there are no good and bad guys here. Every character is bad to the bone, evil, amoral and sadistic. There is a single character you might want to root for, but he is only a bit part actor.

And therein lies the problem. The book might be well written, the plot interesting and fairly original, but the characters have no sympathy value whatsoever. Why would I care whether one murderous piece of scum stabs another in the back and in turn gets poisoned by a third?

So, if you like the eldar and want to read about them, maybe you’ll like this. If you prefer the characters in your books to have at least some redeeming features, avoid this one.